And They're off!

Drove Mom and Dad to the airport this morning to catch a plane to Dublin to hook up with their Ireland tour. It looks fabulous. And they're going to be in so much better shape than all of those Americans who will just be arriving from the States. I told Mom when she gets around parents who are bragging about their children, she can tell them that she has a daughter who braves Heathrow Airport traffic and lives to tell the tale. Actually, it's not all that bad getting there, but the getting back into the city at 8 a.m. on a Friday morning was a little slow going.

Yesterday, Mom and Dad took it easy and packed for their trip and then they stayed with Maddie so Skip and I could go out to dinner and a movie. This was MUCH appreciated as Skip has been keeping horrendous hours and we haven't had much time together. We wound up at an Irish pub near the movie theater (later we spotted a Morrocan restaurant and made a note to try it next time). At pubs, you can have food delivered to your table, but you have to order everything at the bar. They give you your drinks to take back with you and then a server comes later with the food. So while Skip was waiting to order, I had a chance to watch people in this pub. In the States, particularly in the South, we tend to characterize bars as seedy places where unsavory characters hang out and bad things happen. And of course, that is not without some basis. But this pub was clearly a neighborhood gathering place. People were waving to one another, greeting one another with hugs. Everyone looked happy and relaxed and at home. It made me wonder if any one has ever done a study on church attendance in a community with thriving neighborhood pubs and compared it to church attendance in communities where such establishments don't exist. Here in England, church attendance is extremely low. There are 60 million people in Great Britian and only 4 million claim to attend church regularly. But I saw the same kind of interaction at that pub last night that I have at any church coffee hour. Hmmmm.

Anyway, on Wednesday, it was rainy, so I took Mom and Dad to Harrod's. Wow! It is a must-see for any visit to London. Alas, Maddie will not see it on this time around in London. There's no way I'm taking the queen of "I want" to the ultimate shoppers heaven. Basically Harrods has many shops within a shop selling everything from Jimmy Choos to Christmas crackers. There's a chocolate bar AND a champagne bar. There's an entire shop that only sells items with the Harrod's logo on it. No community atmosphere here--it's every one for themselves. We also got to see the memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed. The owner of Harrod's was Dodi al Fayed's father.

Of course the big news here in London is the split between Madonna and Guy Ritchie. Poor Guy. He's the native and all the media are lamenting that Madonna may now move away from London and they'll lose their most colorful and famous celebrity. Although I must admit (not to benefit from the misfortune of others), the coverage of their break-up does provide a welcome respite from news of the US elections and worldwide economic disaster.

The way the "credit crunch" has affected us so far is that our trip home for Christmas has been totally rearranged because Delta has cancelled so many flights. We will be enjoying a nine hour flight to Atlanta followed by a four-hour layover before we can connect to LR. So basically the failing economy is inconveniencing us. I'm sure the people who are losing their homes to foreclosure are really feeling our pain.